Beautiful Pontevedra!

The Madrid Spain Temple

CCM - Nefi District with our teachers

The view from our classroom at the CCM.

Hello All!

With President and Sister Jackson

I´ve survived the CCM and am now in the wonderful city of Pontevedra. It is in the Northwest of Spain above Portugal, right on the coast. Everything here is green because as I´m told it rains here all the time. (I have yet to see any of this rain though.) On Tuesday night I took a sleeper train up to Vigo where I met my trainer Elder Giforos. On the train I had the really cool opportunity to talk with a man named Jesus. I was talking with the other guys in my room, as best as I could with my basic CCM Spanish and he came up and asked if I was American and could he practice his English with me. Of Course! We had a great conversation about Spain and the Gospel. I love being able to share this message as I stand as a witness at all times and in all places.

The rama (branch) here is awesome! It is pretty small in numbers but it is strong in faith. There are between 15 and 20 members that come each week. I always wanted to serve in a small rama and I´m glad to be here. The members are incredible people with strong testimonies of the Truth. On Sunday the branch president´s wife brought me a loaf of homemade GF bread and she told me that she wanted me to feel comfortable here. The people are all just amazing and wonderful.

We are teaching a Romanian family, Los Stefan. They are super cool people and want to learn but it’s hard to teach them because they don´t understand a whole lot of Spanish. We are trying to learn some Romanian which is fun but difficult while I´m still trying to learn Spanish and a little Gallego, the local dialect. But it is great! We showed Los Stefan the Joseph Smith Restoration video and the Spirit was there and bore testimony of the truthfulness of the BoM and Joseph Smith. It was an experience that again taught me that language is not a barrier to the real teacher, the Holy Ghost. I am grateful to be serving here in Spain and to have such wonderful people to teach and to talk with on the streets. My companion is amazing and I am grateful for his guidance. I know that this is the True Gospel of Jesus Christ and there is nothing I´d rather be doing right now.

 I am grateful for my sister who has faithfully served the people of the Philippines for the past 18 months. I hope that I can live up to the standard that she has set as a consecrated missionary of the Lord.

I love you all,

Elder Gustafson

The study room in our apartment in Pontevedra

The view from our apartment

Even in Spain...

Me standing on the grass at Real Madrid Stadium. 
(This is for you Josie!)